25 Sep 07 | Burma
The Burmese junta, responsible for the brutal crackdown on recent protests against the authorities’ decision to hike fuel prices at a time of worsening economic conditions, is bankrolling its regime by exploiting the country’s vast natural resources at the expense of the Burmese people and environment.
Oil, gas, gold and timber – amongst other commodities – are being ruthlessly sought out for extraction, sale and export abroad, often with the help of complicit foreign companies. According to campaigners, the trade in these natural resources has been linked to serious human rights and environmental abuses, including killings, forced labour, deforestation, pollution, land grabbing and compulsory relocation.
The trade in Burmese timber has been particularly responsible, say pressure groups, for a disturbing number of violations and, in some cases, accused of being directly to blame for perpetuating armed conflicts and insurgency inside the country. Much of the timber coming out of Burma is being exported to China and other Asian manufacturing hubs before finding its way onto the high streets of Europe and beyond.
Highly valuable Burmese teak and other hardwood is used in all manner of products from garden furniture to decking for luxury yachts. Index found a number of UK companies openly selling teak from Burma despite accusations from environmentalists that this trade in ‘blood timber’ is unacceptable.
Campaigners argue that despite large profits being made by the Burmese junta, and timber suppliers, manufacturers and retailers, little or none of this wealth is filtering back to the Burmese people. They are calling on companies and governments to cease doing business with the Burmese regime to help severe the revenue gained from these unsustainable trades.
Although images and reports of the recent protests and subsequent crackdown were seen around the world and helped to reignite global interest in south Asia’s ‘forgotten’ country, critics say the ruthless exploitation of the country’s resources – and the involvement of outsiders – has been woefully under-reported.
In Shwegyin township, in Burma’s Nyaunglebin District in eastern Pegu, large-scale logging operations sanctioned by the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE) – part of the government’s Ministry of Forestry – have been linked to murders, violent attacks and the ongoing harassment of local Karen people.
Problems initially began back in the 1990s when the area was first militarised, but have grown acutely since construction of a controversial and dam was given the go-ahead. As land upstream of the dam was due to be flooded, rampant logging and other resource extraction was actively encouraged.
According to US advocacy group Earth Rights International (ERI), in 2006 the Burmese military were redeployed to the region to challenge Karen control and to open up and maintain fresh timber and mining concessions nearby. The group claims that many villagers in the area have been displaced, some reportedly hunted down in the nearby mountains and shot onsite.
Others have been forced to pay money to the military, had their crops and other food sources destroyed, and been coerced into forced labour. Investigations by ERI have revealed how the Burmese regime as a whole, forestry officials, the military and private companies all profit from the trade in timber from the region whilst local inhabitants are forced to live in increasing poverty.
The MTE has contracted out much of the logging operations in the region to private companies, on condition that at least 35 per cent of the logs are sold back to them, for onward sale and profit. The military itself, along with local militias, in turn demand ‘protection money’ from subcontractors employed to physically undertake the logging.
After being chopped, the logs are hauled through the forest and loaded onto boats or trucks for transport to sawmills. The timber is then purchased for use internally or export abroad. Campaigners fear that once all the forest in the immediate vicinity has been stripped, the military, closely followed by forestry officials and logging companies, will move into adjacent, largely untouched areas, and begin the cycle of destruction again.
‘The situation [in Shwegyin township] is pretty dire – there’s virtually nothing left, the logging companies, and the mining companies, and just about everybody else has stripped the place bare,’ one Bangkok-based activist told Index, ‘ the worst thing is that this is being repeated all over Burma.’
East of Pegu Division, on the Thai-Burmese border, the trade in timber has been equally rife, and been responsible, according to campaigners, for continuing the cycle of armed conflict between the Burmese army and the myriad of insurgent groups operating in the area. All parties have been implicated in the logging of teak as a source of revenue, in some instances reportedly funding the purchase of arms and other contraband goods.
China continues to be another major importer of Burmese timber however, much of it illegally sourced by Chinese logging companies operating inside Burma under the gaze of corrupt officials. This trade alone is thought to be worth $250 million annually; overall timber exports from Burma have accounted for as much as 9.3 per cent of the country’s legal foreign exhange earnings in a single year.
Advocacy group Global Witness, which first raised the alarm about the role played by timber in perpetuating conflict – the group highlighted in 1995 how the Khmer Rouge were trading timber to fund its murderous regime in Cambodia – argues that the continued logging of Burmese forests jepoardises any chance of peace or sustainable development in the country.
Chinese companies have been identified as supplying Burmese teak and teak products to retail markets elsewhere in the world. In the UK, despite vigourous campaigns by activists, Index has discovered that a number of timber firms continue to sell teak from Burma.
NHG Timber Ltd, based in Sanderstead, Surrey, offers Burmese hardwood for sale as planks, boards and logs; marine specialists Hawke House, based in Gosport, Hampshire, uses Burmese teak for decking destined for use in the manufacturer of luxury yachts; and the Oxfordshire-based Timbnet retails sawn teak amongst other hardwoods. Pressure groups say that furniture made from Burmese teak is frequently found for sale in both specialist and high street stories.
Whilst there is no suggestion that these – or other – companies are directly involved in any illegality or wrongdoing, campaigners argue that anyone doing business with Burma is contributing to the suffering of the country’s people and environment: ‘Companies trading in goods and commodities such as oil, gas, timber, gems and clothing are directly or indirectly helping keep the regime in power,’ a spokesperson for the Burma Campaign UK told Index.
The group is not calling for a complete boycott of Burma, but targeted economic sanctions that they believe will help cut the economic lifeline to the Burmese government.
At the time of writing, democracy activists, students and journalists inside Burma continue to face persecution for organising, participating or reporting on the recent dissent against the increase in fuel prices. Safely investigating the role natural resources are playing in propping up the regime is virtually impossible internally. But, say campaigners, the outside world has a duty to highlight those playing a part in legitimising the Burmese junta by doing business with it.
24 Sep 07 | Comment, News and features
The press censorship laws in Burma are draconian to say the least. In its latest move the Burmese military junta has disconnected telephone lines of journalists, leading politicians and activists to curb free the flow of information to the world outside.
One journal editor, worried about the disconnection, told Index that the authorities had disconnected over 20 mobile and landline phones in a week.
‘They disconnected some of my colleagues’ mobile and landline phones and of some leading politicians. The junta should not have disconnected the telephones of journalists,’ he said.
The regime has cracked down and arrested peaceful demonstrators who have been protesting over the sudden fuel price hike in mid-August. During the initial demonstrations, media workers and others managed to dispatch news and photographs to the Burmese Internet and broadcast media in exile. After that, the regime tried to block the free and unbiased flow of information outside the country.
The Press Scrutiny Board (censor board) has been restricting reporting news of these demonstrations in the domestic media.
‘Some reporters visited the scene of demonstrations. But they did not try to report the news as they knew that such reports would be censored by the board. This is understood by everyone,’ a Rangoon-based weekly journal editor told Index.
‘I think the monks gave a deadline in their ultimatum to the regime. [The junta] seem to be trying to block and prevent news from spreading to the outside world. So they disconnected mobile and landline phones of those who have frequent contacts with the outside world,’ he added.
Initially, the peaceful demonstrations were started by the 8888 generation students. Then the monks joined it along with party members of the NLD, which posted a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections but was not allowed to take power.
Government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) members beat up the demonstrators and arrested them. Amnesty International claimed there were at least 150 arrests during these crackdowns and that the number of political prisoners has reached 1,200. The official figure is just 60.
The tension was growing when the army and the USDA beat the protesting monks on 5 September in Pakhokku. It was after this that four monks’ unions demanded that the regime apologise to the monks, roll back the fuel and essential commodity prices and engage in dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to resolve the current political crisis. The monks set their deadline on for 17 September. The monks’ unions appealed to the 400,000-strong monks in Burma to boycott the regime by not accepting alms offered by them if they did not concede to their demands by the deadline.
Meanwhile, the regime issued a statement threatening that the NLD would be outlawed for inciting and instigating the current demonstrations. The junta also disconnected the NLD landline phone in its headquarters and at least 10 mobile phones of its members.
‘Our landline has had no connection for both incoming and outgoing calls since Wednesday. We didn’t enquire about it, but just lodged a complaint to the exchange,’ NLD spokesperson U Nyan Win told Index.
The military regime has been tapping the phone lines of politicians and political activists for a long time. But they intensified the tapping after 2005, and now they have disconnected the phone lines.
‘They always tap the phones. Now it is very clear that they are not just tapping these phones but even disconnecting the lines, not only of politicians and activists, but also journalists,’ Burma Media Association (BMA) Secretary Ko San Moe Wai said.
We tried to contact the Myanmar ministry of communication but to no avail. A staff from Naypidaw Auto Telephone exchange department (a branch of the ministry) told Index, ‘Naypyidaw exchange and Yangon exchange are different departments. Please contact the concerned exchange.’
USDA members also attacked and harassed journalists who covered the protests by snatching their cameras and beating them.
‘When I got to Hledan junction traffic light, I saw USDA members in front of the protesters. They blocked the way and shouted ‘strike the photographer’ when I tried to take a photograph. I had to flee from the scene immediately. I escaped, but some were hit by them,’a reporter from a Rangoon-based foreign wire agency said.
The regime also blocked the YouTube website, where people could view video clips and footages of the ongoing demonstrations.
Moreover, Internet speed has slowed down significantly since the first week of September.
Burmese journalists recalled the days of free media for a month in the heydays of the 1988 uprising.
‘In those days, when the entire administrative machinery had collapsed, we could publish what we wanted to. We printed from any press we had a close relation with. There were no arrests, no censors. The people were well informed in those days. We published these papers until the day before the coup on 17 September, 1988,’ the journalist said.
When the military grabbed power again from the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) government, they tightened the censorship rules even more.
They amended the colonial-era Printing and Publishing Act in 1996. Under the newly enacted law, possession and use of a fax machine without permission and sending and receiving email without authorisation can lead to imprisonment, or a fine, or both. Moreover guidelines were set in the 11 censorship rules (commandments) for printers and publishers who are forbidden to print material containing sexual matter, violence and supernatural violence among other subjects.
But the regime liberalised in some areas. They gave more permits and license for journals and magazine publications. The censor board was shifted from the Home Affairs ministry to the Information Ministry in October 2004, after the ousting of the once powerful General Khin Nyunt.
After that they granted more publishing permits to journal and magazine publishers. Now the total number of private journal and magazine permits has reached over 200.
‘Previously when the censor board was under the Home Affairs ministry, they gave such permissions only to government departments and the real publishers and editors had to hire these permits and license by paying some fees, about 20 per cent to the license owner. Now this hire permit system has been abolished,’ a journal editor said.
‘Some censorship rules have been liberalised. We are a little bit freer in 2006-07 than in 2004-05,’ he added.
But under a plan of ‘attack media with media’, Information Minister U Kyaw San, Industry Minister U Aung Thaung and Lt Gen Htay Oo of USDA are conducting disinformation campaigns against Burmese media groups in exile, offering economic incentives to some domestic journalists and pushing them to write pro-regime articles and reports. At the same time the government-backed USDA and Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation (MWAF) visited government offices and talked to government employees on how the reports of Burmese media groups in exile are baseless and concocted.
In press conferences they let their touts ask pre-arranged questions, and in return give some minor scoops that need not be passed by the censor board. Most of the time they put pressure on publishers to print their propaganda articles and reports in almost all journals and magazines on a mandatory basis. Thai-based BMA Secretary Ko San Moe Wai said that this is in total and sheer violation of press freedom.
‘Free media simply means unbiased and objective coverage. We report what we see based on concrete facts and figures. We shall point out the weakness frankly, should we find any. This is what free media is,’ he added.
The veteran journalist said that the real challenge for all domestic journalists is to report what they see and feel, at the risk of being arrested and their publishing permit being terminated.
‘We all have our own feelings. We have to put media ethics and media norms on the back burner and have to think only of our survival. We have to ask ourselves how long will I be able to write. We have to put media norms in second place,’ he added.
Another veteran journalist told Index how domestic journalists have to write in an evasive manner, using cryptic language, in order to get stories past the censor board.
‘We cannot give our message to our audience directly. We have to write cleverly, comprehensively, to cover the message that we want to give. It’s very difficult for us to get our reports and articles past the magnifying glasses of the censor board,’ he said.
Pyapon Ni Lon Oo was fired as chief editor of Cherry magazine in 1997 for allegedly getting involved in politics. He told Index: ‘Nowadays the censorship is too tight. There are many censors now. Writers cannot write directly, but have to write indirectly and cleverly.’
He added that the censor board censored not only individual articles, but also looked at the writers and their background and their track record in politics.
‘The censor board has its established rules. But it never follow its own rules. If the writer is their man, or pro-regime, they overlook the rules and pass articles without scrutiny or screening. If not, they won’t pass it, in total disregard of the story. The rule depends on the individual. It shouldn’t be so in a free media.’
(more…)
13 Apr 23
Marking Banned Books Week 2021, Index on Censorship and the British Library present a conversation with poets at the frontlines of protest movements fighting for the right to speak freely and without fear of persecution. Poetry is frequently used as a tool in...
25 Jan 23 | Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Botswana, Burma, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Index Index, Ireland, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, News and features, Nicaragua, North Korea, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States, Yemen
A major new global ranking index tracking the state of free expression published today (Wednesday, 25 January) by Index on Censorship sees the UK ranked as only “partially open” in every key area measured.
In the overall rankings, the UK fell below countries including Australia, Israel, Costa Rica, Chile, Jamaica and Japan. European neighbours such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Denmark also all rank higher than the UK.
The Index Index, developed by Index on Censorship and experts in machine learning and journalism at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), uses innovative machine learning techniques to map the free expression landscape across the globe, giving a country-by-country view of the state of free expression across academic, digital and media/press freedoms.
Key findings include:
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The countries with the highest ranking (“open”) on the overall Index are clustered around western Europe and Australasia – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.
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The UK and USA join countries such as Botswana, Czechia, Greece, Moldova, Panama, Romania, South Africa and Tunisia ranked as “partially open”.
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The poorest performing countries across all metrics, ranked as “closed”, are Bahrain, Belarus, Burma/Myanmar, China, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Laos, Nicaragua, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
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Countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates performed poorly in the Index Index but are embedded in key international mechanisms including G20 and the UN Security Council.
Ruth Anderson, Index on Censorship CEO, said:
“The launch of the new Index Index is a landmark moment in how we track freedom of expression in key areas across the world. Index on Censorship and the team at Liverpool John Moores University have developed a rankings system that provides a unique insight into the freedom of expression landscape in every country for which data is available.
“The findings of the pilot project are illuminating, surprising and concerning in equal measure. The United Kingdom ranking may well raise some eyebrows, though is not entirely unexpected. Index on Censorship’s recent work on issues as diverse as Chinese Communist Party influence in the art world through to the chilling effect of the UK Government’s Online Safety Bill all point to backward steps for a country that has long viewed itself as a bastion of freedom of expression.
“On a global scale, the Index Index shines a light once again on those countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates with considerable influence on international bodies and mechanisms – but with barely any protections for freedom of expression across the digital, academic and media spheres.”
Nik Williams, Index on Censorship policy and campaigns officer, said:
“With global threats to free expression growing, developing an accurate country-by-country view of threats to academic, digital and media freedom is the first necessary step towards identifying what needs to change. With gaps in current data sets, it is hoped that future ‘Index Index’ rankings will have further country-level data that can be verified and shared with partners and policy-makers.
“As the ‘Index Index’ grows and develops beyond this pilot year, it will not only map threats to free expression but also where we need to focus our efforts to ensure that academics, artists, writers, journalists, campaigners and civil society do not suffer in silence.”
Steve Harrison, LJMU senior lecturer in journalism, said:
“Journalists need credible and authoritative sources of information to counter the glut of dis-information and downright untruths which we’re being bombarded with these days. The Index Index is one such source, and LJMU is proud to have played our part in developing it.
“We hope it becomes a useful tool for journalists investigating censorship, as well as a learning resource for students. Journalism has been defined as providing information someone, somewhere wants suppressed – the Index Index goes some way to living up to that definition.”
11 Oct 22
What is the Index Index? The Index Index is a pilot project that uses innovative machine learning techniques to map the free expression landscape across the globe to gain a clearer country-by-country view of the state of free expression across academic, digital and...
